


Nightwing and Flamebird

by WandaRavenBlack



Series: Road to Crisis on Infinite Earths [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angry Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Batman, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Minor Slade Wilson, Past Torture, Protective Dick Grayson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 11:55:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20723801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WandaRavenBlack/pseuds/WandaRavenBlack
Summary: EARTH 83After Bruce comes back, he can't figure out why so much has changed. He wants to figure it out and go back to how things were before. But, for some reason, his sons won't tell him anything. He gets an insight into everything when he overhears a conversation between Dick and the rest of the League.





	Nightwing and Flamebird

Bruce had been back for only five hours, and he had already noticed all the changes. First of all, Damian was not leaving Dick’s side, and that was shocking. Last time he had put those two in the same room, he had to forcefully stop Damian from killing the first Robin. Now, it was hard to get them alone for more than a few minutes. And, what surprised him even more was that it seemed completely normal to Alfred. He wanted to talk to Dick, knowing that the young man would explain everything to him, but Dick seemed to always have something else to fix. So, instead, he decided to simply try to overhear what the two boys could be talking about when they were alone. He had seen Dick heading towards the cave so he decided to sneak to where he knew he could overlook the whole room from. Dick was sitting in the chair, looking over all the screens. Suddenly, a new screen appeared with Diana and Clark on it. 

“Dick! We’ve heard the news.” 

Diana’s voice was full of happiness. Dick nodded. 

“Yeah. It’s pretty great. Finally can ditch the cape.” 

Clark laughed. 

“You and that cape.” 

Barry’s face appeared next to them. 

“Hey. Does this mean that we can expect Nightwing back on the streets soon?” 

Dick nodded again, a smile on his face. 

“Yeah. As soon as possible. I’m missing a suit that I can make a real split in.” 

“You mean one that doesn’t hide your behind?” 

Damian appeared from seemingly nowhere and perched himself on the armrest of the chair. Almost on instinct, Dick put his arm around the boy’s waist, keeping him in place. Damian squirmed slightly and Bruce realized that Dick was tickling him. The boy swatted at his hand and Dick laughed, before pulling him into a half-hug. On the screen, Diana smiled. 

“You two are simply adorable.” 

Damian made an offended face, while Dick beamed a smile at her. 

“Well, you’ve always had a soft spot for me, Diana.” 

Behind her, Clark and Barry exchanged amused looks. Damian rolled his eyes. 

“You’re thinking too highly of yourself, Richard.” 

Not wanting it to escalate, Clark moved closer to the screen. 

“And where does this put you now, Damian? Is Bruce going to let you be Robin?” 

Bruce felt shock at that. But, when he thought about it, he wasn’t sure about it himself. He didn’t know Damian. And, if he was being honest, he didn’t trust the kid. Not the same way Dick seemed to. Down in the cave, Damian froze. Noticing it immediately, Dick pulled him a bit closer. 

“Actually, I might have an idea. We all know that Bruce will not let Damian continue as Robin.” 

“So what do you plan?” 

Dick glanced up at Damian. 

“It all depends on Dami. He can stay here and try to convince Bruce that he is the right person to be Robin. Or…” 

“Or what?” 

Clark’s voice was careful when he noticed that Dick was starting to get nervous. 

“Well. I was thinking that he could maybe come with me to Bludhaven.” 

Damian looked at him with shock. 

“What? You WANT me to come live with you?” 

Bruce noticed how much weight Damian put on the word ‘want’ and realized that Damian was surprised that Dick actually wanted to spend time with him. Dick smiled. 

“Of course, Little D. We’re partners. We have each other’s backs. I need my sidekick. I would be nothing without you. But it is all up to you.” 

And something happened that Bruce wasn’t ready for. Damian practically beamed at Dick. 

“Are you kidding me, Richard. Of course I’m going with you.” 

Then he seemed to remember himself, because an annoyed look came back to his face and he rolled his eyes. 

“After all, someone has to make sure you don’t burn down the kitchen while trying to make cereal.” 

Dick made an outraged face, while Diana, Clark and Barry laughed quietly. It was well known among all the heroes and teams that Dick was a disaster in the kitchen. 

“Well, if you’re so confident that you’re good in the kitchen, why don’t you go check with Alfred how it's going with dinner?” 

Damian sighed. 

“I’m not your butler, Grayson.” 

Still, he stood up and walked out of the room. 

“And change into something more comfortable!” 

Damian flipped him off and twirled the cape behind him. As soon as he was out of the room, Dick slumped down in the seat and sighed heavily. Immediately, the smiles disappeared from the three heroes faces. 

“Dick?” 

Clark’s voice was careful and Dick looked up. 

“Yeah?” 

“Is everything alright? You don’t seem happy.” 

Dick pulled his fingers through his hair, wincing slightly when they caught on some tangles. 

“I am. I really am. Bruce is back, he’s alive. Jason is trying to hunt down Tim and they will be here soon. It’s… Everything is alright.” 

Diana frowned. 

“And what about you and Damian?” 

“We’ll be fine.” 

The silence stretched over the room and Bruce started to get an odd feeling. When he came back, he had thought that everything would fall back to how it had been before. He hoped that everything was as it had been. But it wasn’t. In some ways, it was better. From what Alfred had told him, Dick had taken up the Batman mantle and made Damian his Robin. That in turn had made Tim leave the family. Jason had came by one day, wanting to check on Dick, and just stuck around. Now, the Red Hood was operating out of the cave, helping Batman on his own terms. The police were getting clean crime scenes that they could just pick up without having to worry about how the scene would look. Dick and Damian had taken down an entire riot and dealt with it without any bigger trouble. He forced himself to concentrate back on the conversation when he heard Clark talking again. 

“Dick. You know that Bruce will not let Damian get away so easily.” 

Even from where he was, Bruce could see the dangerous look that appeared in Dick’s eyes. And it unnerved him. He had seen that look in Jason’s eyes. He had seen it in Damian’s eyes. He had even seen it in Tim’s eyes. But never in Dick’s. 

“He can try to stop us.” 

“Dick…” 

“No. That kid belongs with me.” 

“Dick…” 

“I’m not giving him up!” 

“Dick...”

“I fought Talia for him, I can…” 

“Richard!” 

Diana’s voice finally made him stop. 

“Listen to us, Little Bird. You…” 

“Don’t call me that.” 

Dick’s voice was hard and cold and they looked at him with surprise. Seemingly realizing what he did, he shook his head slightly. 

“Sorry. It’s just… Slade called me that.” 

Understanding appeared in Diana’s eyes and she smiled softly. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Bruce felt confusion. Slade? When had Dick been around Deathstroke for long enough that the man developed a nickname for him? And why did it seem that the others knew about it, but Bruce didn’t? Talia? Had Dick actually fought with Talia to keep Damian?

“What we want to say is that Bruce is Damian’s biological father. He has rights. He will do what he can to stop you from taking him away. He doesn’t trust Damian.” 

“He doesn’t know Damian. And if he tries to take him away from me, I’ll make sure that he suffers.” 

“Richard!” 

Dick’s eyes were cold. 

“No, Diana. I’m not backing down on this. You’ve all seen the change in him. Damian is thriving, he’s happy. He goes to school and doesn’t get in trouble. He goes out on patrol alone and doesn’t threaten anyone with death. He’s smiling, laughing even. Yeah, he still fights with Jason, but come on. Jay fights just as much as him. He’s more relaxed. All this happened when Bruce wasn’t here. And don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for everything Bruce has done for us. All of us. We wouldn’t be here without him. But he doesn’t know anything about Damian. And he’s not getting the kid.” 

All three Leaguers looked slightly worried. After a few seconds of silence, Clark spoke up slowly. 

“Dick. I see where you’re coming from. But…” 

In that moment the door opened and Damian walked inside. Bruce noticed that he was wearing sweatpants and a too big hoodie, that they all recognized as Dick’s. 

“Am I interrupting?” 

The angry look disappeared from Dick’s face and he shook his head. 

“Nah. What did Alfie say?” 

Damian’s eyes widened. 

“That’s what I was supposed to do.” 

He turned around and quickly ran out of the room. Dick rolled his eyes, before turning back to the screen. Clark started talking again, keeping his voice as calm as possible. 

“What I was going to say is that Bruce has a very short temper when it comes to his family. You’ve seen how he sometimes argues with Jason. And that’s just when Jason makes him mad. You’re talking about taking his son away. However much I hate saying this, things might get violent.” 

Bruce felt shock. Did they really think that he would actually hurt one of his children? Of course he was aware that he could be a bit too rough with them in training. And he had fought with Jason shortly after he came back. But he would never hurt one of his children because of something like this. Dick stood up, leaning closer to the screen and Bruce saw something in his stance that he had never seen before. 

“I was Slade’s apprentice for seven months, before the other Titans could figure out what was happening. He trained me every day. Well, except for the days he tortured me. I didn’t really get it back then but now, looking back at it, I finally do. He knew that he was strong enough to fight Batman and win. But there would be no satisfaction in that. No. He trained me to be like him, so that he could make me fight Batman. And I will. If he tries to take Damian away from me, I will fight him.” 

There was so much conviction in his voice that Bruce almost forgot the most important part of what he had said. Dick had spent seven months with Deathstroke. Why hadn’t anyone told him? Why hadn’t he been contacted? Why had the Titans allowed it to go on for so long? 

“You’re not Slade, Dickie.” 

“I know. But I can be like him. And I will be, if Bruce tries to take my kid away from me.” 

Before anyone could comment on Dick saying ‘my kid’, the door opened again and Damian walked inside. He frowned when he saw Dick’s posture. 

“Richard?” 

Dick turned to him. 

“Yeah?” 

“What’s wrong? And don’t lie to me.” 

Bruce completely expected Dick to lie, and was therefore surprised when he heard Dick’s answer. 

“We were talking about Bruce. He might have trouble with you moving in with me.” 

Damian’s face scrunched up in anger. 

“I don’t care! I don’t want to stay here if you’re not here!” 

Dick smiled at him. 

“Don’t worry, Dami. I’m not going to let him take you away. I promise.” 

Damian relaxed slightly. 

“Alfred says that dinner will be ready in five minutes. And that you better change out of the suit, or he’ll take it away and lock it somewhere.” 

Dick looked down at the Batman suit that he was still wearing. 

“Yeah. I want to get out of this thing too. As I said, I miss my old suit. Why don’t you go and help Alfred set the table. I’ll change and then come help you two.” 

Damian nodded, waved at Diana, and left. Dick turned back to the screen. 

“I need to go. I’ll call you up later, to tell you how it goes. Oh, Clark?” 

The man nodded. 

“Remember when you told me about Nightwing?” 

Another nod. 

“Well, I remembered not long ago that you said Nightwing had a sidekick. Firebird?” 

“Flamebird.” 

Dick smiled. 

“Yeah. That. Think you could send a bit info about that to Damian? I’m aware that Batman needs a Robin, and I’m more than sure that Tim will be able to take up the mantle again. But that also means that Nightwing’s sidekick can’t be Robin. I’m going to ask Damian if he would like to become Flamebird instead.” 

Clark smiled softly. 

“Sure. I’ll send it to his phone.” 

“Thanks. I’ll see you all later.” 

He was going to disconnect but stopped when Diana quickly added: 

“Be careful, Dick.” 

“Of course.” 

And he disconnected. The room became so quiet that Bruce literally held his breath. He didn’t want Dick to figure out that he had heard everything. But everything changed when Dick suddenly turned to where Bruce was hidden and spoke up in a calm voice. 

“I hope you realize that I meant everything I said.” 

And, with dread filling his stomach, Bruce realized that Dick had known all the time. He stood up and walked down the stairs. Dick sighed. 

“I don’t like reminiscing about my time with Slade. But the fact is that he taught me everything he knew. And he taught me well.” 

Bruce walked a bit closer. 

“Do you really think I would fight you?” 

Dick shrugged. 

“I don’t know. But I won’t let you take Damian away from me.” 

He turned away from him and walked over to where the glass case was. Quickly, he took off the suit and put on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie with the Superman logo on it. 

“Let’s go. Before Alfred starts to worry.” 

His voice sounded tired and Bruce decided to let it go for now. He followed the young man to the dining room and smiled at Alfred. Alfred and Damian looked between them and the boy frowned. Dick grinned at him and sat down at the table. Bruce sat down at the head of the table, and pointed at the seat to his left. 

“Alfred? Sit down with us.” 

The butler seemed slightly surprised, before smiling and sitting down. Damian sat down next to Dick and frowned. 

“Do I have to…” 

“Yes.” 

Dick’s voice was final, and Damian sighed. 

“But…” 

“Eat the carrots, Dami, or I’ll eat up your dessert.” 

Damian looked at him with irritation, before he put some carrots on his plate. 

“Happy?” 

“Yup.” 

The dinner was spent in silence, Bruce watching with slight amusement how Damian tried to sneak some of his carrots over to Dick’s plate. Then, when they were all done, Alfred stood up and pointed towards the living room. 

“I’ll serve the dessert in there, if that’s alright.” 

They all nodded and walked over to the living room. Bruce sat down in an armchair, while Dick and Damian took one of the couches. 

“Damian?” 

The boy looked at him with suspicion. Next to him, Dick sent him a warning stare. And that stopped Bruce in his tracks. Because he suddenly realized something. Even if there wasn’t the risk of Dick going all Deathstroke on him, there was no way he would be able to split these two up. 

“What are you planning on doing now?” 

Damian frowned. 

“What do you mean, father?” 

Somehow, the word ‘father’ seemed forced. 

“Now that I’m back, I guess you have two choices. You can either stay here, and still be Robin. Or you could go help Nightwing out in Bludhaven.” 

Damian’s eyes widened slightly, before he regained his composure. And that was when Bruce realized how closed off Damian was with him, comparing to Dick or even Alfred. 

“I’ve seen how you two work together. You’re doing a great job. If you want to, you can go with him. You’ll both always be welcome here, but I think you can do much good in Bludhaven.” 

Damian glanced over to Dick, but the man was keeping his eyes on Bruce. Almost daring him to say the wrong thing. With a quiet sigh, Damian kicked him gently and Dick looked down at him. 

“What?” 

“What do you think?” 

Slowly, Dick relaxed. 

“You know what I think, Little D. We’ll have to see if we can get a bigger flat, but other than that, we’re good to go.” 

Damian nodded, before looking back to Bruce. 

“I’m going with Richard. But…” 

He hesitated. 

“I can’t be Robin, if I go, right?” 

Dick put his arm around his shoulders. 

“I’ve got you covered on this too. There is an old Kryptonian legend about Nightwing. Clark told me about it when I didn’t know what to do with my life. The thing is, Nightwing had a sidekick. Flamebird.” 

Damian smiled. 

“That doesn’t sound totally wrong.” 

In that moment, Dick’s phone started ringing. He took it out and frowned. 

“It’s Jason.” 

He answered and put the phone to his ear. 

“Jay? You found him? Great. Yeah, sure. No. Look, why don’t you meet up with us in Bludhaven. Yeah. Dami is coming with me. No, I will NOT punch him from you. Okey, thanks.” 

He hung up and smiled. 

“Jason found Tim. He sent him here and is going to wait for us in Bludhaven. We should leave soon.” 

“Not before dessert, Master Dick.” 

Dick looked back at Alfred and smiled. 

“Never before dessert, Alfie. Never before dessert.” 

  
  


********

  
  


The Justice League were all pacing the room nervously. The newest threat was not anything they had dealt with before. It seemed to be some kind of interdimensional energy that turned people into some kind of villain. After having ran into eight Scarecrows, Twelve Penguins, Five Poison Ivys, Nine Harley Queens and no less than 26 Jokers, the League decided to call in reinforcements from wherever they could. They had already sent the Teen Titans and Young Justice out to two neighboring cities and were just waiting for Bludhaven’s response team. They were late. 

“What could be holding them back?” 

Diana put her hand on Bruce’s shoulder. 

“Calm down, Bruce. They will come.” 

As if on command, the doors opened and three people stepped inside. Nightwing and Red Hood were bickering about something, while Flamebird was just walking behind them with an amused look on his face. He was clothed in a black armoured suit with orange sleeves and an orange bird, identical to the one Nightwing had, on his chest. His cape was black on the outside, but orange on the inside, giving the illusion that it was on fire. His mask matched the dark orange on his sleeves and he wore black gloves. To his back he had strapped the sheath to his long sword. 

“Hello.” 

The two older vigilanties stopped talking and turned towards Diana. 

“What took you so long? How are things in Bludhaven? Where are the others?” 

Clark smiled when he saw Nightwing and Flamebird next to each other. Right where they belonged. 

“Actually not that bad. But we got a bit held up when Hood ran into a Joker clone. He got quite trigger happy.” 

Flamebird scoffed. 

“You’re the one to speak. You saw Deathstroke and you almost beat his brains out.” 

Red Hood and Nightwing glanced at each other, or at least Bruce thought they did since the mask obscured Hood’s face, and then said at the same time: 

“We have a problem.” 

Then all three turned back to the League, Nightwing starting to explain things. 

“We have five confirmed cases in Bludhaven. One Joker, one Deathstroke, Two Penguins and, surprisingly, one Two-Face. We have them all at the jail. The police know about what’s going on and are ready to work with us to contain this. We’ve kept the panic under control and sent Kid Flash and Tigress over to Mount Justice to see if they can help figuring out what’s going on. They should…” 

“Be here now?” 

Everyone turned to where Kid Flash, dressed in his black stealth suit, was just putting Tigress down after the run. They walked over to their team and Tigress put her arm around Flamebird’s shoulders. He smiled up at her, before they concentrated on Kid Flash again. 

“We ran all the tests we could. Nothing came up, but Miss M and Starfire want to test a few more things before they contact the outside. Best thing we can do now is wait for their answer and try to keep the panic from spreading.” 

Nightwing nodded. 

“We have been running tests back at home to figure out some kind of anti venom. We haven’t had any positive results yet.” 

Flamebird perched himself on a table and tilted his head. 

“So far, Bludhaven is the city with the least cases of spontaneously turning into a villain. I’ve been trying to check all the variables to see why that could be the case. One of my ideas is that there is something in the air around Bludhaven that makes its inhabitants immune to the effects of the energy that turns people into villains. We checked that all five cases of turning were tourists who were just passing through. I sent all the data I had about our atmosphere, air, water and earth to Mount Justice to see what they could come up with.” 

Tigress, who had sat down on the table next to him, took over. 

“For safety reasons, we’ve put Bludhaven under a quarantine. No one enters, no one leaves. Because of the few cases, we’ve decided to let the schools and works be open. We’ve also opened a few safe houses for the homeless and poor, so that everyone can be inside at night. We put up a curfew time between 9pm and 9am. During that time, we patrol the streets. The police take over from us in the morning, giving us some time to rest up.” 

Red Hood, who had been still trying to argue with Nightwing over something that seemed important to him, started talking after her. 

“I’ve managed to come into contact with the local mafia and some of the smaller gangs. They agreed to stop their work until we figure out how to stop this energy. Even they understand that if we don’t do this, they won’t have anyone to mess with.” 

“And it didn’t hurt that you had two guns pointed at them.” 

Hood tried to swat Kid Flash’s head, but the young man simply moved out of the way and grinned at him. Nightwing rolled his eyes. 

“After we got rid of all the corrupt cops and double agents, we ended up with only seven policemen in the entire Bludhaven. So, the team came to a mutual agreement to let them know our identities. It makes things much easier for us now, since we’ve set up a base at the police station and are allowed to stay in the flats that belonged to the police. That way, we can be on call 24/7 and the cops don’t have to worry about where we are when something happens. And…” 

Suddenly his phone started ringing. He answered it quickly. 

“Nightwing. Where? Alright, we’re on our way.” 

He quickly hung up and turned to Kid Flash. 

“Sixth case. A woman who came in to visit her sister before we shut the borders. Outside the school. KF, take Tigress and go. We’ll be right behind you.” 

He nodded, grabbed the woman and disappeared. 

“Right behind them?” 

Flamebird smiled. 

“We managed to engineer a car that will travel at superspeed. Not quite as fast as Kid Flash, but it works out well when we need to get somewhere fast.” 

“I’m driving.” 

Nightwing nodded at Red Hood and smiled slightly. 

“Of course you are.” 

They were all ready to leave, when Bruce’s voice stopped them. 

“Boys.” 

They turned around, the three brothers standing close to each other. 

“It was nice to see you. All of you. I… I’m proud of you.” 

They stood still for a few seconds, all three in shock. Then, they nodded and Flamebird answered: 

“We’re proud of you too.” 

Before they disappeared, hurrying back to the city they now called their home and had sworn to protect.


End file.
